The National LGBT Bar Association is sponsoring the Michael Greenberg Student Writing Competition. Here are the deets:

The Michael Greenberg writing competition scholarship recognizes and encourages outstanding law student scholarship on the legal issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex persons. The scholarship was established in memory of Michael Greenberg, former National LGBT Bar Association board member and Philadelphia attorney who died in 1996 from complications related to AIDS.

TOPIC: Legal issues affecting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and/or Intersex community.ELIGIBILITY: Students must be enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school during the 2011-12 academic year.

DEADLINE: Entries must be submitted before the competition closing date of May 20, 2012. All entries must be submitted via email to writingcompetition@lgbtbar.org. Please write “Michael E. Greenberg Writing Competition” in the subject line.

AWARDS:

First Place

$1,000 cash prize

Publication in the Journal of Law and Sexuality at Tulane University Law School

Registration, airfare (within the 48 contiguous United States) and lodging for the Lavender Law Annual Conference and Career Fair in Washington, D.C., which will take place from August 23-25, 2012.

First & Second Runner-up

Registration for the Lavender Law Annual Conference and Career Fair in Washington, D.C.

FORMAT: Each entry should be a scholarly piece fit for publication in a law review. Entries should follow standard note format, including Bluebook (19th edition) citation form. All entries must be submitted in English. Each entry should be no longer than 25 single-sided pages with one-inch margins and 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced. The page limit includes footnotes. Footnotes should be single-spaced and 10-point font. Entries containing endnotes or including appendices or supplemental material will not be considered. Published papers or papers to be published in other publications during the entirety of the competition process are ineligible. Each individual may submit only one entry and group entries will not be accepted. Entries should be the sole work of the author and should not yet have undergone significant editing by others. Editing includes any significant revision as well as technical or substantive review of citations. Informal support, such as general comments on preliminary drafts, is allowed.

All entries must be submitted electronically in either Word or PDF format. Entrants must not include their name or the name of their school on the competition paper itself. Instead, participants must submit a separate cover page indicating their name, school, permanent address, telephone number, and a statement indicating that a preemption check has been completed as of the date of submission. We reserve the right to reject any submissions that do not conform to these standards, in particular those that list any identifying information on the submission directly.QUESTIONS?
Please contact LGBT Bar Law Student Division Co-chair Ashley E. McGovern at writingcompetition@lgbtbar.org with any questions or concerns. Do not include any substantive information regarding your piece, as submissions are blind-graded by student co-chairs. For more information about the National LGBT Bar Association, please visit: www.lgbtbar.org.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s new rule, Equal Access to Housing in HUD Program — Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity, aims to “ensur[e] that HUD’s housing programs are open, not to some, not to most, but to all.”

The new regulation goes into effect 30 days after final publishing.

On its most basic level, the rule requires owners and operators of HUD-assisted housing and FHA-insured mortgage lenders to make housing/mortgages available without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity of an applicant.

One interesting aspect of the new rule is that it not only protects against FHA-insured lenders making lending decisions based on actual sexual orientation and gender identity, but also on perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. Meaning, a person does not have to be LGBT for protection under this rule — the lender only has to believe the person to be LGBT and determine eligibility or alter existing terms for mortgages.

ORAM – Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration – is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping refugees worldwide who have been forced to flee their home countries due to persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. ORAM provides free legal aid to refugees and help resettle and reintegrate them into safety and works closely with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to improve the adjudication of LGBTI claims for protection.

ORAM also works to better educate not only the general public of the plight of LGBTI refugees, but to train and educate NGOs and institutions worldwide to develop the procedural conditions for LGBTI refugees.

ORAM is seeking highly qualified and dedicated interns to perform a wide range of activities, including extensive research and writing on a variety of issues related to protection for persons fleeing persecution based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Participants will have the opportunity to work with the foremost human rights advocates in the international community as part of the world’s leading non-profit for LGBTI refugees. Interns will participate in the process of developing, researching, preparing, and generally supporting our advocacy projects.

Mazzoni Center, a nonprofit organization which focuses on the health and wellness needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, is currently accepting applications from first and second year law students for summer internships for the summer of 2012. The summer program will begin on Tuesday, May 29, 2012, and end on Friday, August 3, 2012.

Mazzoni Center Legal Services provides direct legal assistance to low-income LGBT individuals in a wide range of areas, including elder issues, employment discrimination, family law/parenting issues, name changes, relationship recognition and dissolution, advanced planning, and youth concerns. Interns will gain familiarity with the unique ways that the legal system addresses the specific needs of the LGBT community. They will contribute to the mission of the office by ensuring that this community has a voice in the legal system. We also represent individuals in cases which may have an impact on the status of LGBT rights within Pennsylvania. Interns will work closely with attorneys on a wide variety of cases, some of which may involve precedent-setting legal issues.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights is looking for a highly skilled, enthusiastic, articulate, and motivated Youth Project Director/Staff Attorney based at its national office located in San Francisco. NCLR wants someone with a law degree and a minimum of 3-5 years of legal or professional experience that prepares the applicant to lead NCLR’s Youth Project work in juvenile justice, child welfare, and other settings.

NCLR is a national legal organization committed to advancing the civil and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families through litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education. Since its founding nearly 35 years ago, the National Center for Lesbian Rights has asserted bold and strategic national leadership at critical moments in the struggle to win marriage and family rights, expand immigration and asylum efforts, support youth safety, create and promote a positive sports culture, as well as work on elder law and transgender law.

The Peter Cicchino Youth Project (PCYP) in the Urban Justice Center is a legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education project that focuses on the legal needs of homeless and street-involved lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning (LGBTQQ) young people (up through age 24) in New York City. PYCP is looking for experienced attorneys for its Project Director position.

PCYP works to interrupt the cycles of poverty and criminalization that prevent LGBTQQ youth from living fulfilling, enriching lives. We advocate for LGBTQQ young people living in poverty on a wide range of issues, including safe and affirming access to shelter, obtaining lawful immigration status, public benefits, accurate identification documents, and discrimination.

The Project Director is responsible for fundraising and managing a $400,000 annual budget, and will represent PCYP to the broader Urban Justice Center, the media, and the public. The Project Director works with program staff to coordinate PCYP’s legal services, to ensure that our clients receive high quality legal representation. The Project Director, along with program staff, will continue to identify systemic priorities and to develop PCYP’s capacity to take direction from the communities we serve.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida (ACLU), a statewide affiliate of the National ACLU, is seeking a Staff Attorney specializing in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and HIV/AIDS related issues.

The staff attorney may be involved in the broad range of ACLU and civil liberties issues. However, the staff attorney will be expected to work primarily on civil rights issues on behalf of LGBT individuals and families.

The attorney will likely be located in the affiliate’s main office in Miami, although placement in one of the ACLU FL’s Regional Offices (Tampa, Pensacola, or Jacksonville) may be considered.

Interested in working with ACLU? Check out the whole listing and find out how to apply at PSLawNet!